Oil workers rescue mistreated stray dog and find her a loving home

Sign up for our newsletter and get stories like this and more from DogHeirs delivered straight to your inbox!

When a group of oil rig workers from Canada working in Iraq noticed a young puppy starving and barely surviving, they banded together to rescue her.

They named the six-month-old Anatolian Shepherd "Lucy". The puppy was one of many stray dogs in the area scrounging for food, but the workers took the young dog under their care. Simon Orford, one of the oil rig workers, told CBC News he could tell the puppy was obviously sufffering and fed her scraps and water.

"A team of us had befriended her," he said."Her ears had been cut off by the locals, and she was just basically starving and really thirsty."

At one point, she was thrown into an oil drum and Simon and his friends fished her out and cleaned her up. Knowing she would be under constant threat, the team couldn't bear the thought of what might happen to her when they left. They decided to find her a home back in Canada.

First they tackled the bureaucratic challenges and arranged for her to be transported to Canada. Then they then turned to Facebook to see if they could find the puppy a permanent home.

That's how Heather Kaisler learned about Lucy. She read their plea and decided to help and adopt Lucy. She knew the dog must be something special for the men to have put in such an effort to save her.

When Lucy first arrived to her new home in Burnaby, British Columbia, she was timid with her alien surroundings. She was unfamiliar with grass and staircases, among other things. But Heather said Lucy is an easy-going dog and is adjusting well. "She's an amazing dog. She's so relaxed for a six-month-old puppy who's been through what she has," she said. "She's amazing."

Simon was reluctant to give Lucy up, but could not keep Lucy himself. He was put at ease when he got to meet Heather and was happy that he and his friends had found Lucy a safe and loving home.

You may also like

"Kevie sings a pretty song." Kevie was rescued from a fur farm. She is known as a Cinnamon (not a native red fox) and was born with brittle bones among other birth defects and therefore cannot be let out into the wild. She has found a loving sanctuary and she has a beautiful singing voice. :-) Related: Talking porcupine loves pumpkin snacks (video) Sea otter has a lot to talk about (video) Sweet dog...

Pepper before and after Pepper had a very rough life until Josh Woodyard rescued her in Houston, Texas. Josh had been alerted about a hoarder and went to investigate. Pepper was in terrible shape when he found her, so he took her in. Josh fostered Pepper, nursed her back to health and paid for her rehabilitation. But Pepper's story took several other twists and turns before the Labrador Retriever / Pointer / Jack Russell Terrier...

A shockingly disfigured Chihuahua name Rosie was rescued from a backyard breeder on June 20th, 2012. Her rescuer, Cinnamon Muhlbauer, fell in love with the neglected dog and decided to adopt Rosie. Cinnamon says that given her history, she deserved a lifetime of love and adoration. Rosie's Facebook fan page tells the following story: Rosie was liberated from a Woodland Hills, CA backyard breeder/hoarder on June 20, 2012. Rosie was born on Valentine’s Day 2010...

Felix Omondi an 11-year-old student with Mkombozi in a compound on the outskirts of Nairobi, Monday, May 9, 2005. The nursing dog foraging for food saved the life of a baby girl abandoned in a forest. Mkombozi's story is legendary in Nairobi, Kenya, if not the world. The African dog currently resides at the Kenya SPCA where she spends her retirement sleeping in a soft bed and teaching school children about animal welfare. It’s...

This is one of the most moving submissions we've received so far. "My name is Maybelle. When I was a sick, stray puppy with nowhere to go, my human gave me a home... you might say he saved my life. As most humans, he has his flaws & at the time a serious drug problem. When he was going to jump in front of the train because he couldn't stop using... the only reason he...

It tells you something about the society and culture when you hear of the abuse the locals perform on the animals. This is the norm for this and other middle eastern cultures, so why should we expect them to respect human life. We'll never change their way of life so why bother trying to stop them killing themselves. Obviously the powers that be in the western world think more of the almighty dollar than the respect of innocent animals. I get disgusted when I read and hear about abuses of animals by low life humans.